Budget 2023 | Panel to examine Scheduled Caste status for Dalit converts allocated ₹3.05 crore 

The Commission of Inquiry has been running on Social Justice Ministry’s contingency Budget till now

After having to make do with funds from the Social Justice Ministry’s contingency Budget for the first four months of its functioning, the Commission of Inquiry to examine whether SC status can be given to Dalit Christians and Muslims has been allocated an amount of ₹3.05 crore in this year’s Budget. 

Under pressure from the Supreme Court of India to clarify its present position on a batch of petitions seeking Scheduled Caste status for Dalit Christians and Muslims, the Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment had formed the three-member Commission of Inquiry in October 2022.

However, even after months of forming the Commission, it is awaiting a full-time office space, secretarial staffers, and official email IDs to conduct correspondence through. 

A Commission member had told The Hindu a couple of weeks before the Budget announcement, “The government has informed us that all our needs will be taken care of in the upcoming Budget allocation.”

The Commission of Inquiry, headed by former Chief Justice of India, Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, has been given a total of two years to finish its studies and present a report to the government.

Commission members have told The Hindu that they intend to undertake field visits to as many States as possible for their work and examine the socio-economic condition in which such population live.

While issuing the terms of reference for the Commission, the government had said that the issue was a “seminal” one and that despite the demands for according SC status to Dalits who had over the years converted to Islam or Christianity, there was also a section of the society that was against this.